Patents - 4. Ownership And Transfer

1. Employee Inventions

In general, the right to a patent belongs to the inventor (Section 6 Patent Act). If, however, the inventor made the invention in the course of his service for his employer, the Act on Employees' Inventions comes into play. This law provides that the employer is entitled to these so-called service inventions. Accordingly, the employer has a right of appropriation of a service invention which transfers the invention to him. In order to execute these rights, an employee is obliged to report an invention to his employee immediately in a written notice, indicating that said writing constitutes the report of the invention (Section 5.1 Act on Employees' Inventions). Even if the employee has made a free invitation, ie an invention neither resulting from the employee's task nor based on the experience of the employers business, the employee is required to report this invention as well to the employer and to offer the invention to employer before exploiting it any